October 31, 2024
Elders are Mission Servant-Leaders
There has been no finer servant leader than Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus called people to serve him then, and he calls people to serve him now.
Articles for tag: Zeal
January 11, 2024
THROWBACK THURSDAY: McGarvey’s Address at the Graves of Veteran Preachers in Kentucky (1909; Part 1)
Christians gathered at The Lexington Cemetery in 1909 to hear J.W. McGarvey offer his recollections of eight "pioneer preachers" who are buried there, including John T. Johnson, Raccoon John Smith, Robert Milligan, and more. (Part 1)
September 5, 2022
September 11 | Application (‘Amazing Grace or a Blazing Pace?’)
Corrie ten Boom said, “If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” A lot of Christ followers are stressed out. We’ve exchanged amazing grace for a blazing pace.
November 15, 2021
Nov. 21 | Application
When we are discouraged and feel like giving up, the book of Hebrews urges us to take the better way and persevere.
September 1, 2021
How Do We Respond to Cancel Culture?
Cancel culture can reek of moral superiority, revel in violence, lack in grace, and eschew redemption, but I believe it can also do some good. When racism is squelched, abuse is punished, victims are protected, the corrupt are exposed, and moral progress is made, Jesus is glad. Even when the fire burns within the church—that is, when church leaders are guilty and held accountable—we should be hopeful God will resurrect from the ashes something sanctified in the furnace of repentance! Maybe we should thank God for cancel culture. As Christians, we have the best theological resources to shine in a
January 29, 2020
Healing the Brokenhearted
By Jerry Harris He was absolutely convinced he was doing the right thing. His indoctrination into the rightness of his position came about over many years; it was painstakingly produced through study and a network of key relationships. His animosity toward this new sect was fueled by an urgency to stamp it out quickly, before it irreparably damaged the true faith forged in a 1,500-year fire of trial and adversity. Followers of this cult didn’t deserve mercy, pity, or the benefit of due process; they didn’t deserve even a second thought because of their perversion of all things good and
January 16, 2020
Plainspoken Advice from a Veteran Minister, Circa 1900
We focus today on two short articles by J. M. Land, a man who preached several decades on either side of the Ohio-Indiana line, up until his death in 1905. Land usually shared obituaries or news items during the time he wrote for Christian Standard, spanning from 1873 to 1901, but he also wrote more than a dozen mainly shorter articles like the two we share today. The first piece by Land offers observations on how older ministers and younger ministers should relate with one another, and the second shares advice for how an incoming minister can resolve an inherited
September 19, 2018
Raiders of the (Almost) Lost Artifacts
History preserved at new Christian Standard Media Library in Quincy, Illinois By Jerry Harris I lacked only a fedora and bullwhip as I channeled Indiana Jones during the excavation of a deep, dark storage-facility locker in a suburb of Cincinnati. Three others joined this expedition: Mike Mack, Shawn McMullen, and Jim Nieman. And no, we didn’t discover the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail that day. In fact, upon first glance, the room seemed filled only with stacks of boxes on pallets, along with totes and other various objects, some wrapped in paper. But we soon began to
August 29, 2016
Leadership Condensed
By Randy Gariss and Ryan Fletcher The actual idea of leadership is profound and indispensable, but as a trendy fad it is often wearisome. The popularity of leadership podcasts, books, seminars, conferences, workshops, and sermons tell us we crave better leadership. The reality is that much of the current offerings on leadership are just spiritualized mush. It seems we”ve taken every leadership book on Amazon, reworded the points to make them sound kinder, attached a Scripture or two, and then thrown them to the church. The only thing missing is the essence of biblical leadership. We, the authors of this
April 18, 2014
Passion
By Jeff Faull Did you ever try one of those love tester machines at the mall? You drop your coin in and grasp the handle as all your friends watch. The buzzers sound and the lights flash and the machine tells you your “love quotient.” You might be hot, passionate, burning, wild, mild, harmless, clammy, all the way down to cold or blah. Have you ever wasted a quarter on that? By the way, those machines came out in the 1930s and are totally random in their rating selection. Maybe that bursts a bubble for some of you, or perhaps
January 12, 2014
Consumer Christians: Bad Bottom Lines
By Jeff Faull We used to call them “church shoppers.” It was often a pejorative term, intended to characterize those who were always looking to be served rather than to serve, to get rather than to give, and to consume rather than to contribute. Ironically, we often end up structuring the church in ways that encourage and cater to that consumer mind-set and behavior. In so doing we run the risk of reducing spiritual things to mere commodities. We dilute the gospel to palatable niceties. We obscure the concept of sacrifice and service. We run the risk of being people-centered
February 11, 2011
Don”t Make Me Lay Hands on You!
By Tim Harlow “If you do this again, I will lay hands on you” (Nehemiah 13:21). Nehemiah wasn”t offering a healing service. This was not a potential ordination. Instead, read Nehemiah”s words this way, “If you do it again, I”ll be on you like a spider monkey!” Nehemiah was mad, and we know he meant it because later in the same chapter he “called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair” (Nehemiah 13:25). As I wrestle with the legitimacy of Nehemiah”s “hands-on” leadership, I notice one thing that looks familiar. “I was
August 1, 2010
When Ministers Cease to Exist
By Keith Wishum Why do ministers quit? Many do every year. And, reportedly, not enough others enter ministry to fill the vacancies. But why? The answers to that question are as varied as are the men who minister. Here, however, is one possible cause that may be universal to all discouraged ministers. Ministers quit when they cease to exist. They cease to exist as ministers after they cease to exist as individuals. Granted, that odd-sounding idea may take some explaining. It is a thought promp-ted by author Frederick Buechner in The Sacred Journey. Describing a typical child”s perspective on the
Interview with Robert Stradley
By Brad Dupray Harmony Pines Christian Camp, located in the San Gabriel Mountains, just north of Los Angeles, has one of the most unique camp programs in the United States. Robert Stradley, camp director for the past 12 years, and his wife, Karla, provide a home to 18 sled dogs that are used in camp programs to teach leadership and teamwork. Prior to serving with the camp, Robert was a Disneyland “Matterhorn” mountain climber and ultimately became a Disney University leader, teaching Disney corporate philosophy to Disney “cast members” and outside corporations. Robert and Karla have two sons, Talon and
September 18, 2005
How Did Jesus Feel?
By James Girdwood God asks us to copy him””to be like him. He said, “Be perfect” (Matthew 5:48); “be holy” (1 Peter 1:15, 16); “love” (1 John 4:11; Hosea 3:1). The book of Hosea itemizes more than 40 ways God expresses his love for his spiritual wife, Israel. Jesus, too, asks us to follow his example. He specifically asks us to copy him in service and in love (John 13:12-17, 34). My Christian parents always taught me to copy Jesus. It seems so natural. The Bible says as much in 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:6 and 1 Peter 2:21.
Is Ministry Where We Go to Lose Our Sense of True Calling?
A pastor reflects on nearly losing his calling to administrivia and urgency. Using a mountain-rescue “self-arrest” lesson, he offers practical disciplines and boundaries to reclaim prayer, focus, and presence with people.
